1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a recording medium, a method and apparatus for preparing a master disc for a recording medium, a method and apparatus for recording a recording medium, a method and apparatus for reproducing a recording medium and a disc-shaped recording medium. More particularly, it relates to a recording medium on which address data have been recorded at the outset, a method and apparatus for preparing a master disc for the recording medium, a method and apparatus for recording the recording medium, a method and apparatus for reproducing the recording medium, and a disc-shaped recording medium.
2. Background of the Invention
As a recording medium having optically recorded thereon digital data, such as high-quality digital video signals, there has widely been known a replay-only DVD (digital versatile disc or a digital video disc). Recently, attempts are being made for commercialization or development of a DVD-R (DVD-Recordable), a DVD-RW (DVD-Rewritable) or a DVD-RAM (DVD-Random Access memory), as a write-once or rewritable recording medium exploiting the DVD format.
In these recording mediums, as in the CD-R (CD-Recordable), CD-RW (CD-Rewritable) or MO (magneto-optical) disc, grooves or pre-pits are recorded sequentially as address data are incremented.
Meanwhile, in the above-described recording medium, a blank disc, on which main data are not recorded as yet, address data are determined definitely. Thus, there has persisted a risk of illicitly copying the contents of the recording medium bit-by-bit or falsifying critical data, such as copyright data, recorded on the specified address data.